CEPHALOPODS 465 
a school of fishes swims over it, darts suddenly into the midst of 
it, seizes a fish with its sucker-bearing arms, and kills it by the 
bite of its parrot-like beak or jaws. Sometimes it happens that 
squids, while pursuing fish too near shore, precipitate themselves 
upon the beach, where they flounder about, ejecting water from 
their siphons, which pushes them only farther away from the 
water, and squirting out “ink” from their ink-sacs in a vain en- 
deavor to hide themselves from view. On bright moonlight 
nights squids often go ashore in vast numbers, and perish within 
afew inches of their native element, which they seem to be unable 
to regain. These creatures usually swim backward, and the theory 
is that, dazzled by the bright light of the moon, they continue to 
' gaze at it while swimming, and if there happens to be a shore in 
the direction of their movements, they suddenly find themselves 
beached. The fishermen of Canada and New England take advan- 
tage of this habit and capture great quantities of squids by placing 
bright lights in the bows of their boats and then rowing toward 
shore, thus driving the squids out of the water. The Banks 
fishermen use them as bait for catching cod. The right claimed by 
American fishing-schooners to purchase squids in Newfoundland 
has helped to keep alive the quarrel between Canadian and 
American fishermen, which has vexed their respective govern- 
ments for. many years. 
The range in size among the species of this class is very re- 
markable. The little sepiolas are about an inch long; the squids 
of our coasts vary in length from eight inches to one foot; and 
the giant Architeuthis of the North Atlantic measures, often, _ 
fifty feet. from the end of its arms to the tip of its tail. Such 
a creature, with its long arms provided with suckers, its power- 
ful jaws, and its rapid, alert movements, is a formidable foe. 
These animals have been the basis of many legends about 
sea-serpents and sea-monsters. A gruesome story of an 
octopus is told by Victor Hugo in “The Toilers of the Sea,” 
where he gives a thrilling account of a man’s encounter with 
a devil-fish in a cave. One who has read this tale has a vivid 
picture in his mind of the giant squid, and the danger of 
meeting one of these many-armed foes. Victor Hugo’s devil- 
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